The Plateau Massacre – A Dismal Sign Of Our Times
The sickening death of around 200 people in the villages of Plateau State is an awful sign of our times. Desperation stalks the land, the people are frantic for any way out of the terrible lives they live, mired in poverty, inequality and corruption. Our trade union leaders have failed to provide clear leadership. Their response to the historically huge increase in the price of petrol was slow and indecisive. As a result, many people are searching for alternative routes out of their suffering. We have to organise better to provide a clear collective response.
We have a regional problem that breaks out with unique aspects. Across the Sahel military coups have ramped up a military response to Islamic insurgency and thrown out the French troops. Without addressing the social problems that lead to increased insecurity, the suffering of the common people is only increasing. It is this that leads to the horrifying eruptions of violence. Nigeria foreign policy of withholding electricity from Niger has not helped matters. It is disappointing that the Nigerian ruling class which was ready to lead ECOWAS forces against Niger cannot protect the peoples of Plateau State and the Middle Belt.
Our problem is that the NLC and other trade union leaders are not using our key weapon, strikes, often enough and then they call them off far too early. So around a dozen states owe wages and pensions and/or have not fully implemented the minimum wage – but action was only taken in Imo State.
A general strike was suspended on the promise of N35k for Federal workers. No action was taken when this was only paid for one month. No action was taken when workers were not paid before the Christmas holiday. Action has yet to be taken over the failure to pay lecturers for at least four weeks of their 2022 strike.
We need a strategy for us to begin to win the class war. We are currently loosing. In 1998 the minimum wage could buy 280 litres of petrol, now it will buy less than 50 litres. Over the same period the GDP grew significantly, as a result the rich are fantastically richer than they were 25 years ago.
Rosa Luxemburg said that the future is either socialism (a fundamentally fairer society) or the barbarism that we now have – shown by the massacres in Gaza and Plateau (and in so many other places across the world).
If we can build Socialist Labour, we can begin to build an alternative trade union strategy that is based around winning strikes – class war trade unionism rather than class collaboration. This can provide hope and provide immediate economic gains for workers and their families. It is only this approach of dealing with the underlying causes that can reverse the descent into insecurity and violence in Plateau State and other places.
